Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-10-08

unaided eye and handp Because they
are insufficient, because if there be a
DETECTION in the wall it cannot further
On be corrected. Because by the law
of gravitation q wall must be straight
in order to be symmetrical and safe.
A young man is in danger OF getting a
defect in his wall of character that may
never be corrected. One Of the best
friends l ever had died of delirium
tremtns at sixty years of aye, though he
had o since twenty-one years of age
before which he had been dissipated--
touched intoxicating liquor until that
particular %carousal that took him off.
Not feeling well in a street on a hot
summer day, he stepped into a drug
store, just as you and l would have
done, and asked for a dose of some
thing to make him feel better. And
there was alcohol in the dose, and that
one drop aroused the old appetite, and
he entered the first liquor store, and
stayed there until thoroughly under the
power of rum. He entered his home
a raving maniac. his wife and daugh-
ters fleeing from his presence, until he
was taken to the city hospital to die.
The cOmbustible material of
EARLY HABIT
had lain quiet nearly forty years, and
that one spark ignited the conflagra-
ton. Remember that the wall may be
n hundred feet high, and yet a de-
Election one foot from the foundation
affects the entire structure. And If
you live q hundred years and do right
the last eighty years, you may never
theless do something at twenty years
of age that will damage al your
earthly existence. All you who have
built houses for yourselves or for
others, am l not right in saying to
these young men, you cannot build ii
wall so high as to be independent of
the character of its foundationp 4
man before thirty years of age may
commit enough sin to last him a life
time. A cat that has killed one pigeon
cannot be cured. Keep 1t from killing
the first pigeon. Now, John, or George,
or Andrew, or Henry, or whatever be
your Christian name or surname, say
here and now: mo wild oats for me,
no cigars or cigarettes for me, no wine
or beer for me, no nasty stories for me,
no Sunday sprees for me, | am going
to start right and keep on right. God
help me, for ] am very weak. From
the throne Of eternal righteousness let
down to me the principles by which /
a be guided in building everything
from foundation to capstone. Lord
God, by the wounded hand of Christ,
throw me a plumb line!"
Lord Nelson's general direction when
going into naval battle was, no man
cal do wrong that places his ship close
alongside that of his enemy. My
friend, you will never do wrong if you
keep your life close alongside the
TEN COMMANDMENTS.
Do right and you can be as brave as
Maria Theresa, who rode up the Hill of
Defiance and shook her sword at the
four corners of the earth.
But" you say, ..you shut us young
folks out from all fun" q, no.! like
fun. / believe in fun. have had lots
Of it N my time. But | have not had
to 90 into paths of sin to find it. No
credit to me, but because of an extra
ordinary parental example and iniu-
ence / was kept from outward trans
gressions, though my heart was bad
enough and desperately wicked. |
have had fun illimitable, though /
neve- swore one oath, and never gam
bled for so much as the value of a pin,
and never saw the inside of a haunt Of
sin save as when ten years ago, with
commissioner Of police, and a detec-
tive and two elders of my church, l ex-
plored these cities by midnight, not
out of curiosity, but that 1 might in
pulpit discourse set before the people
the poverty and the horrors of
UNDERGROUND CITY LIE
Yet, though l never was intoxicated
for an instant, and never committed
one act of dissoluteness, restrained
only by the grace of God, without
which restraint l would have gone
headlong to the bottom of infamy. l
had SO much fun that | don't believe
there is a man on the planet in the
present time who has had more. Hear
it, men and boys, women and girls, all
the fun is on the side of right. Sin
may seem attractive. but ii is beautiful,
and like the machineel, a tree whose
dews are poisonous. The only genuine
happiness is in an honest Christian
life. The Chippewa. wanting to see
God, blackens his face with charcoal
snd fasts till he has a vision Of what he
calls God. My God l can see best
when l take my hat off and let the sun
shine blaze in my face, and after a
reasonable break asst. He is not u God
of blackness and starvation, but Of
light and plenitude, and the glory of
the MONDAY sun is
EGYPTIAN MIDNIGHT
compared to it. There they go-two
brothers. The one was converted n
year ago in church, one Sunday morn
ing, during prayer, or sermon, or
hymn. No one knew it at the time.
The persons on either side Of him sus-
pected nothing, but in that young mans
soul this process went III: Lord,
mere l am. amid the temptations of
city life, and | am afraid to risk them